Glasgow
Solange Pessoa has used a huge variety of organic materials over the last four decades, including hay, feathers, hair, blood, fruit, vegetables, and natural pigments. With “Pilgrim Fields,” which featured new work produced between Glasgow and her home in Minas Gerais, Brazil, she introduced some very specific additions to that list—elements such as dried water reeds from the Tay (Scotland’s longest river), raw black Hebridean wool, and various varieties of cultivated Scottish moss. Arranged in clusters on the floor of Tramway’s vast, light-filled main gallery, these materials and other natural matter—dried leaves, marigold petals, Niger seeds, hops flowers—created a loose configuration of small islands, or perhaps nests, many of them populated by bronze or ceramic sculptural forms that resembled oversize pulses, seeds, or vegetables. The experience was olfactory as well as visual; on entering the space, the subtle yet unmissable scent of dried flowers and what could be lanolin hung in the air.
Pessoa’s choice of “Pilgrim Fields” as the exhibition title beautifully captured the feeling of earthy spirituality encapsulated by this low-lying sculptural landscape, while at the same time evoking journeys and the interconnectedness of our world. Meandering through the environment, taking in the smells, textures, and shapes of natural forms from Scotland and Brazil, was reminiscent of walking through a flower-free yet particularly engaging public garden. (As part of the exhibition, Pessoa also created a separate textile work, which hung from a tree in Tramway’s Hidden Gardens greenspace.) As the artist commented in an accompanying video, the context of this former tram warehouse, with its exposed steel girders and pillars, contributes to the installation’s quietly engaging atmosphere, providing a note of tension as nature and industrialization are brought into dialogue.
An illustrated handout acts as a map for navigating the show, with all 25 separate elements listed and their materials simply described: “4. Bronze sculpture on Scottish washed white wool”; “14. Ceramic stoneware sculpture on chamomile flower”; “17. Dried cultivated Scottish kelp, various species.” Each individual cluster, consisting of just one or two elements, pushed materials and form to the fore. The objects, whether natural or created by Pessoa, were smooth, curved, pod-like, and irregular, evoking
a sense of comfort and continuity in contrast to the hardness of the steel, brick, and concrete in
the surrounding building. Moss, petals, and wool spilled across and mingled with the still-intact tram lines that dissect the floor.
As always in Pessoa’s work, her materials are carefully chosen, their historical resonances adding human memory to the deep time of nature. Wool, according to the handout, references the Scottish land clearances of the early 19th century, which saw the displacement of small-scale croft farmers as landowners sought to maximize profits from sheep farming. Kelp, meanwhile, was once used in the manufacture of glass and soap, before the collapse of the industry during the Napoleonic wars. While this kind of information highlights Pessoa’s considered approach—“The materials exist in connection with thoughts and intuitions,” she has explained previously—the work doesn’t rely on a tick sheet of reference points for its emotional and intellectual impact. Through its clever configurations and finely balanced combination of the natural and artist made, “Pilgrim Fields” was questioning and calming, tapping into our deep connection with the natural world as the ghosts of Glasgow’s industrial age circled around.
A selection of Solange Pessoa’s pedra-sabão or soapstones will be on view in “Erasure” at the Goodwood Art Foundation in West Sussex, U.K., November 22, 2025–April 12, 2026.
